“Suppose we do? What do you desire of me?”
“I wish to possess myself of certain information in your keeping.”
“Relative to that Vermont affair?”
“Precisely.”
“I can tell you nothing.”
“Excuse me. Perhaps you mean you will tell me nothing.”
“As you please, sir.”
“I think you will,” Jack says, calmly. “Will you pardon a cigar, Mrs. Harding? Perhaps the smoke will keep these inquisitive mosquitoes at a distance.”
Isabel laughs unpleasantly. “Do I understand you to intimate that you will resort to force?” she inquires, sarcastically.
“Assuredly; although I don’t fancy the word ‘force.’ ‘Induce’ is the better term.”